ECO-2023 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Marginal Utility, Marginal Cost, Scientific Method

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harlequinchinchilla54

14 Sep 2016

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Scarcity - fundamental concept of economics that indicates that there is less of a good freely available from nature than people would like. Choice - the act of selecting among alternatives (trade-offs) Resources - the ingredients, or inputs, that people use to produce goods and services. Capital - human-made resources used to produce other goods and services tools. Yew-tree: trash tree objective - a fact based on observable phenomena that is not influenced by differences in personal opinion subjective - an opinion based on personal preferences and value judgements. Rationing - allocating a limited supply of a good or source among people who would like to have more of it. Economic theory - principles assembled in a manner that makes clear the cause-and-effect relationships. Opportunity costs- the highest valued alternative that must be sacrificed as a result of choosing an option. Economizing behavior - chasing the option that offers the greatest benefit at the least possible cost.

Related Questions

Economics is nothing more than the study of scarcity and choice. It's called the Economizing Problem.

Economics is also the study of human action---why people make the choices they do.

We have finite (limited) resources and infinite (unlimited) demand for goods and services. We must, therefore, use rational decisions as to how to allocate these resources so that we can produce the goods and services that satisfy as many needs and wants as possible.

Needs are those things that make life possible---food, clothing, shelter, etc. Wants are the things that make life easier---glass in windows, carpet on the floor, a refrigerator to keep your beer cold, etc.

The resources we are trying to use wisely are not confined to money. We are talking about talent, ability, drive, ambition, etc. We can't all be brain surgeons. Nor would most of us want to be. We have different needs and wants that drive our ambitions. I have 5 grandchildren. The oldest two are twins---a boy and a girl. My granddaughter graduated from Idaho University with a bachelor's and a master's degree in accounting in 5 years. She passed the CPA exam on the first try. She now lives in Panama and works for BMW. She speaks, reads, and writes 4 languages, including English. Her brother finally graduated from the University of Arkansas in May 2016 after 8 years! Why did it happen this way?? They were raised the same way by the same parents. Why was my granddaughter drove to succeed and my grandson so listless?

Then there is subjective valuation and opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is nothing more than what you have to give up to do something else. Some of you might have to roll out of the bar or the party a little before you wanted to leave just to be able to attend my class. You might also have to give up some precious sleep. In any event, you had to give up something to attend my class. That's the opportunity cost. Remember, everything you do has a price (opportunity cost) that must be paid according to Harry Browne who wrote, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World.) To do one thing you must give up the opportunity to do something else.

When people decide to buy a product or service they must decide if it will satisfy a need or want at a price they are willing to pay. The number one reason that people buy the products or services they do is called Personal Tastes or Preferences (Subjective valuation). Everyone has a different price they are willing to pay for the same product or service. Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. That's a subjective valuation. Each of us has a different intensity of demand for the same products. Things you want I may not care for at all, and the opposite may also be true. This is why there is such a variety of goods and services offered on the market.

Subjective valuation is also fluid. As your income goes either up or down it changes your valuation of products and services. Have you ever wanted something so bad you would do almost anything to get it---an i phone or I pad?---but once you get the money you think, "do I really want this?' and you don't buy it. This is common. If it were not for a subjective valuation we would all be wearing the same style and color clothes and living in similar houses, etc. Wouldn't that be a wonderful world! I'd find the tallest building in downtown Orlando and see if I could fly! It is not the similarity in people that interests me. It's the differences. It's my desire not to be like everyone else that has driven my life. Don't strive to be someone else. Strive to find and be yourself. God save me from a terminal case of conventional wisdom!

There are 5 embedded questions.

Give me an example of subjective valuation.

salmoneel837

Question 1

The law of demand states that there is a direct relationship between supply and demand.

True

False

4 points

Question 2

Equilibrium is a state of balance between supply and demand.

True

False

4 points

Question 3

Goods are scarce for both rich and poor.

True

False

4 points

Question 4

"The big corporations in this country, like ExxonMobil and GM, have deep pockets and need to be hiring more people." This is a positive statement about economic policy.

True

False

4 points

Question 5

The law of supply states that there is a direct relationship between price and quantity demanded.

True

False

4 points

Question 6

In the circular flow model, firms own economic resources, and householdsbuy the manufactured products and services.

True

False

4 points

Question 7

Households play a dual role of providing the factors of production whilepurchasing the goods and services of firms.

True

False

4 points

Question 8

Opportunity cost is the lowest valued benefit that must be sacrificed asthe result of choosing an alternative.

True

False

4 points

Question 9

Scarcity denotes that our desire for a good exceeds the amount that isfreely available from nature.

True

False

4 points

Question 10

Economics is a social science concerned with satisfying man's unlimitedwants with limited resources.

True

False

4 points

Question 11

Joint output of individuals or nations will be maximized when goods areexchanged between parties in accordance with the law of"comparative advantage".

True

False

4 points

Question 12

The production possibilities frontier assumes that the level of technologyvaries when applying the model.

True

False

4 points

Question 13

Excess demand in the market will cause the price of a product to decline.

True

False

4 points

Question 14

Demand is measured on the vertical axis and supply on the horizontalaxis.

True

False

4 points

Question 15

A change in quantity demanded is a movement along the same demandcurve.

True

False

4 points

Question 16

As globalization and world trade proliferates, individual markets withincountries' economies become more competitive.

True

False

4 points

Question 17

Which growth theory compares a subsistence real wage rate to the actual real wage rate?

		Classical growth theory
		Inflation growth theory
		Neoclassical growth theory
		New growth theory

4 points

Question 18

Suppose the working age population in Tiny Town is 100 people. If 25 of these people are NOT in the labor force, the ________ equals ________.

		unemployment rate; 25/100 Ã 100
		employment rate; 25/75 Ã 100
		labor force; 75
		labor force; 25/100 Ã 100

4 points

Question 19

Suppose there is a rise in the real wage rate. As a result, the quantity of labor demanded:

		increases.
		decreases.
		does not change because there is no change in the money wage rate.
		increases only if the price level also decreases.

4 points

Question 20

GDP can be computed as the sum of:

		all sales that have taken place in an economy over a period of time.
		the total expenditures of consumers and business over a period of time.
		the total expenditures of consumption, investment, and government expenditure on goods and services over a period of time.
		the total expenditures of consumption, investment, government expenditure on goods and services, and net exports over a period of time.

4 points

Question 21

The real wage rate equals:

		(100 x (money wage rate/price level)
		(100 x (price level/money wage rate)
		(money wage rate x (price level)
		(money wage + (number of hours worked/(price level)

4 points

Question 22

If the CPI was 121.5 at the end of 2007 and 138.3 at the end of 2008, the inflation rate over these two years was:

		10.2 percent.
		13.8 percent.
		12.2 percent.
		16.8 percent.

4 points

Question 23

A movement along the production function is the result of a change in:

		the quantity of labor.
		technology.
		capital.
		interest rates.

4 points

Question 24

All of the following are part of fiscal policy EXCEPT:

		setting tax rates.
		setting government spending.
		choosing the size of the government deficit.
		controlling the money supply.

4 points

Question 25

Along a production possibilities frontier for real GDP and the quantity of leisure time, as leisure time increases, real GDP:

		decreases.
		increases.
		stays the same.
		could increase, decrease or stay the same.

lavenderminnow570

The opportunity cost of going to college is almost never discussed, yet it is quite high, so high that it is seriously impacting the broader American economy. For non-economists, âopportunity costâ is one of the most important concepts in economics. Because of scarcity we only have limited resources, and when we use those resources to do something like go to college, we cannot use them for other things that we also believe are desirable.

By far the most important resource we use in producing goods and services is labor or âhuman capital.â Based on what we pay owners of resources, we can say that roughly two-thirds of all production of goods and services is attributable to direct human effort â work. When kids go to college, they forego entering the labor force in a major, full-time manner. When six or seven percent of the entire American population is in college, that means a significant reduction in work effort occurs because otherwise highly productive persons in the physical prime of their lives are only lightly utilized in making things or providing services.

Today, only slightly over 59 of every 100 Americans of working age actually work, down from almost 66 in 2000. If we had the employment-population ratio of 15 years ago, we would have at least 16 million more working Americans today â an increase of over 10 percent. Our output would be probably the better part of a trillion dollars higher. The push for âcollege for allâ is one reason we have less work effort today (to be sure, the modern welfare state has also lowered work incentives a lot for other reasons).

The college for all crowd says higher education augments oneâs human capital, and we forego output today from working to bolster output tomorrow from more productive workers. And, no doubt, that is sometimes true. We have many productive engineers and accountants who gained important skills in college, for example. But is that necessarily true of all college graduates, particularly when Arum and Roksa tell us that graduating college seniors typically have only marginally better critical reasoning skills that freshman? And when over 40 percent of those entering four year colleges fail to graduate in six years? What if millions of those who do graduate take jobs similar to those without that college education? What if the debt incurred to pay for the college leads many to delay marrying, delay buying houses? There is evidence that to some extent the push for college has led to all of these unintended consequences.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has published great work showing that there is a very severe underemployment problem amongst college graduates, and other equally good research demonstrating what many of us have been saying for years: the student financial aid programs such as subsidized student loans, have pushed up the cost of college. Now a sister Federal Reserve Bank, namely Philadelphia, is jumping into the act.

The Philly Fed in a new study shows that high student loan debt is preventing young potential entrepreneurs from starting new businesses â they cannot afford the necessary debt. Opportunity cost again: if I borrow a lot to go to college, I cannot afford to borrow to start a business.

Enrollment in all forms of higher education today are up roughly 50 percent or seven million from what they were in 1990. What if enrollments had only risen proportionate to population growth â we would have three or four million fewer enrolled in college today. Would our nation be better or worse off? No one knows for sure, but the continued rise in the proportion of Americans with a college education has been accompanied by a sharp reduction in the rate of economic growth. I bet we would have fewer underemployed recent graduates. I bet we would have less than 17 percent delinquency rates on college loans, and far less than a trillion dollars in loan debt. I bet we would have a higher rate of labor force involvement and entrepreneurial activity among the young. And I bet we would be spending tens of billions less on higher education, and at least a little bit more on capital goods investment, highway construction, et cetera. In short, I suspect we would have been better off as a nation.

Richard Vedder directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, teaches at Ohio University, and is an Adjunct Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Question :

This is a short article discussing the concept of opportunity cost and college. Provide your views on this topic.Do you agree/disagree with the article? Why? What are your thoughts on the current employment landscape of college graduates? Provide any insight on this topic on a specific industry, your own experience, or the experiences of people that you know who have already graduated.

magentalion418

ECO-2023 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Marginal Utility, Marginal Cost, Scientific Method

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